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Raptors officially re-sign guard Kyle Lowry to multi-year contract

Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors calls out to his teammates as he dribbles the ball down the court during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans during NBA action at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, February 10, 2014. Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post

TORONTO — In the summer of 1999, three weeks after Steve Francis was drafted against his will by an NBA team from Canada, he finally went for a tour. He stayed at a nice hotel on Vancouver’s waterfront and remarked on all the helicopters he had seen, adding that he looked to the mountains to “see if I could see like a bear in the woods or something.”

Unsurprisingly, Francis, from Takoma Park, Md., never played a game for the soon-to-be departing Grizzlies. Canada was still a basketball wilderness, after all, and that reputation was as strong as it would be difficult to shake.

In Toronto, Raptors forward Antonio Davis grumbled that his children were being forced to learn the metric system and sing O Canada. A representative for Tracy McGrady told a Toronto radio station the young star was surprised at “how much curling is on TV,” while Chris Bosh, who left for the Miami Heat only four years ago, complained Canada did not offer “the good cable.”

So taken in that context, the Raptors made a little history on Thursday.

Kyle Lowry was courted by Houston and Miami but ultimately agreed to $48-million deal with Toronto. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)

The team signed point guard Kyle Lowry, an all-star calibre 28-year-old, to a reasonable four-year contract reported to be worth US$48 million. Lowry had been a free agent and entertained other offers, including reported interest from Miami and Houston.

He chose to stay.

“Everyone says ‘Toronto can’t do this, or Toronto can’t sign back their own free agents,’” Lowry said at a news conference. “I just proved them wrong. I’m back.”

They still teach the metric system in Canada. They still sing O Canada, offer different cable packages, spend a healthy chunk of the year on pebbled ice throwing big granite stones and spend surprisingly little time avoiding bears in most urban centres. What has changed is what helps make Thursday notable.

A Canadian has been selected No. 1 in the NBA draft two years running (Andrew Wiggins this year, Anthony Bennett last year), while two women (Natalie Achonwa, from Guelph, Ont., and Michelle Plouffe, from Edmonton) were taken high in the WNBA draft this spring.

And it was during the spring that the Raptors, during a brief foray into the playoffs, made an unexpected appearance in league-wide conversations. During their seven-game series against the Brooklyn Nets, the Raptors opened the concrete courtyard next to Air Canada Centre to the public. It quickly became known as Jurassic Park, a throbbing mass of fans watching games on the big screen attached to the arena.

“My sense is that the whole aspect of basketball in Canada has taken on a new life because of the fan engagement,” Larry Tanenbaum, the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, said. “And the media is showing this to the rest of the world, that Toronto is the place to come to play basketball.”

The Raptors won a franchise record 48 games last season, with Lowry reaching career-highs in points (17.9 per game), rebounds (4.7) and assists (7.4). Toronto finished first in the Atlantic Division, and clinched home court for the first round of the playoffs.

Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri suggested that is what helps quiet questions of taxation and the availability of ESPN. Winning is what matters, he said.

“You know what? When you are trying to sell, and it’s not a good basketball team, they remember those things,” he said. “When it’s a good basketball team, nobody ever asks those questions.”

The questions usually come after the contracts are signed, he said.

“To be honest, I think we make way more of a big deal of it here than anywhere else,” Ujiri said. “If you told them they had to go play in London, they would do the same thing, they would question it … it’s another country, but we have to make the best out of it and let people know what a great place it is.”

The Raptors nearly traded Lowry in December, with a report suggesting a deal with the New York Knicks was close, only to be vetoed by upper management in New York. It would have sent Toronto in a different direction — in a rebuilding direction, where a trip to the playoffs would have been unlikely, and the fan avidity in the playoffs would likely have remained dormant, a sleeping nation.

Instead, after one good run, the Raptors have been able to retain one of their big names, a player happy to be in Canada. It is not the same as a championship, but it feels a bit like another hopeful step away from the wilderness.

“Honestly, you know, if you don’t come here, you don’t know too much about it,” Lowry said. “But just being here, seeing the passion in the fans, the passion in the organization … and the cleanliness of Canada in general is pretty cool.”